Skip to main content
Bread

Sure Pop Yeast

This recipe makes yeast bread using a yeast foam sponge with white, whole wheat, or raisin variations.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sure Pop Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Soak the yeast in warm water; boil and mash the potatoes. Mix well together and let stand from one morning till the next.

  2. Take out one pint to start next time.

  3. Thicken the rest of the mixture with flour the first thing in the morning.

  4. After breakfast, the mixture is light and ready to mix for bread.

Make the bread

  1. Mix 3 cups of the sponge with 1 tablespoon of lard, add salt, and make the dough stiff with flour.

  2. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size.

  3. Knead, place in pans, let rise again, and bake in a slow oven for 1 hour.

  4. Mix 3 cups of the sponge with 1 cup light-brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon lard, and 4 cups whole wheat flour.

  5. Let the dough rise and knead as for white bread.

  6. Mix 2 cups of the sponge with 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup lard, 1 cup seeded raisins, 1 cup light-brown sugar, and 3 cups white flour.

  7. Knead as for plain white bread.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

991Calories
26 gProtein
22 gFat
173 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Wheat + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Boiled and mashed into the sponge, adding starch and moisture that help the dough hold water and stay soft.
Yeast
Soaked in warm water to leaven the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Flour
Thickens the sponge and builds the dough structure through gluten formed during kneading.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives the bread a softer texture.
Light-brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and feeds the yeast while browning the crust slightly.
Seeded raisins
Add sweetness and moist pockets of fruit flavor throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it doubles in size. Under-proofing leaves a dense loaf, while over-proofing lets the gluten weaken so the bread collapses or bakes flat. Watching for doubled volume helps the yeast gas stretch the dough at the right point.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, wheat, raisin):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, wheat, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More yeast bread recipes

Milk 27Compressed 23German 21Potato 21No 20Hop 8 See all 83 →

You might also like

Potato BreadPotato Bread124 recipesWheat BreadWheat Bread65 recipesWhole Wheat BreadWhole Wheat Bread55 recipesBarley Wheat BreadBarley Wheat Bread6 recipes